It is important to remember, but also difficult to understand, that in the concentration and
death camps, music acted as a means of survival for the prisoners AND as an instrument
of terror used by the Nazis.
Music was deliberately exploited as part of the terror of the Nazi camps for a number of purposes:
•
the coordination of marching labour to the rhythm of the music
•
the use of background music for public punishments and executions
•
appearances for Nazi ceremonies or inspections tours, private appearances for Nazi
guards/officers
•
forced mass singing
•
First created in the early 1920s, when the Nazi party
was still a fringe movement
•
Large expansion of the group when the party came to
power in 1933
•
Hitler Youth Law declared in December 1936 making
membership compulsory for all youth in Germany
•
Girls incorporated into its sister organisation, the Bund
deutscher Mädel (BDM, League of German Girls)
•
Aim was to instill discipline and a love for Germany,
and to educate youth along Nazi lines
•
Group singing was considered particularly important
as a means of building group solidarity and obedience
•
Also incorporated a lot of instrumental music,
particularly brass bands
[FULL ARTICLE]
•
Theresienstadt is often also referred to as the ‘Model
Ghetto’
•
Theresienstadt sustained vibrant Jewish cultural life
which reinforced its image as a ‘model’ Jewish
settlement.
•
the children’s opera Brundibár was composed in 1938
as an entry for a children’s opera competition.
•
In July 1943, the score of Brundibár was smuggled into
the Theresienstadt camp, where it was re-orchestrated
for the musicians who were available to play at that time.
•
the Nazis realised the propagandistic potential and
arranged a special new staging of Brundibár for the
propaganda film Theresienstadt -eine
Dokumentarfilm aus den jüdische Siedlungsgebiet
•
it was also performed for the inspection of
Theresienstadt by the International Red Cross in
September 1944.
[FULL ARTICLE]
